I guess the cold front just blew in…. with a vengence.
Rain coming down.
Sustained 20MPH+ winds, gusts are well over 40MPH and forecast up to 55MPH.
If I end up “over the rainbow”, you’ll know why. 🙂
Life
Emotional rollercoaster
With the events of the past week, it was pretty low. This past weekend I finally got to release a lot of the emotions I had to put on hold to help deal with the realities of the situation. It’s still sad, but you move on.
Then early this morning I get an email from a good friend telling me his wife went into labor. This is earlier than expected, but I just spoke with him… they’ve been at the hospital a few hours, she’s almost fully dilated, and it’s time to push. Any moment now, little one will be here. It’s their first.
From sadness from a life ending, to joy from a new life beginning.
Life’s a rollercoaster. But it’s a fun ride. 🙂
Disconnect myself
Today, a neighbor and friend was laid to rest. And yes, I say friend because while we weren’t “BFF’s”, he was a solid man. He was so friendly, so helpful. He was always there, always willing to lend a hand, even if it was just to shoot the shit while standing in the yard. He was a good man.
I miss the sight of him mowing the lawn… in bare feet… and with those damn burrs, I don’t know how he did it. I will miss seeing him  outside, fixing a car, or building something, or throwing a ball around with his sons… radio in the garage playing classic rock or country music. He was a watchful eye in the neighborhood, always taking care of geez… everything and every one, even the neighbors that he might not known at all. And gosh.. when it was deer hunting season man…. I envied his hunting opportunities. I loved listening to his hunting stories. I love seeing all the racks he has around the perimeter of his garage interior. It won’t be the same around here without him.
We’ve been doing all we can to help the family, and it just doesn’t feel like enough. If ever there was a time I wished for a magic wand, it’s now more than ever.
K… we love you. We’re here for you and the boys. I know you have a long road ahead, but we’ll be here to support and help you. We’ve told you this many times this past week, but know it’s not just empty words or words that after a few weeks pass and we all drift back into our own lives that we forget. No. We’re with you on this ride.
I’ve got so many things going through my head… through my heart… through my soul. I firmly believe that all things happen for a good reason. I look to find the good in all things. Right now, I’m not sure what the good is in this, but I know in time it will reveal itself.
But for now… I need to just disconnect myself for a little bit. Don’t worry for me… just need a little time. Just send a little cosmic strength and support to the family, ok?
Texas homeschooling bills – updated
I received word back from HSLDA about the 3 homeschool-related bills introduced in the current Texas legislative session.
My take? You can debate the merit of the intentions behind the bills, but from a legal perspective they are bad bills.
Not feeling it today
Sorry folks.
Just not feeling it today.
Tragedy befell a family my family is friends with. We’re helping them through right now doing whatever we can. It’s just heavy, and well… I don’t feel like writing anything right now. Maybe later.
If it’s your thing, say a prayer for their family. If it’s not your thing, say a prayer anyways. Send some energy and strength through cosmic vibes or whatever. Me, I’ll be fine, but they need a lot of strength and support right now.
Exploring rum
Beer. Wine. Liquor.
I prefer beer.
Some years ago I was at Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference, and over dinner with a few co-workers — one of whom was well-versed in wine — I started to try out wine in a more serious mode. I came to appreciate it, and since then certainly enjoy exploring the world of wine. I like going to local Texas wineries, some of which produce good stuff, and sampling the wares. Once the weather warms up, I’m wanting to do winery excursions with Wife… pick a local one, drive out, sample, explore, enjoy. Something for us to do together. BTW, there are some red wines that Costco/Kirkland produces… run in the $20-$30 range. I’m pleasantly surprised at their quality.
But I’m still not that into liquor. Oh sure, I like some good mixed drinks. Bloody Mary’s I dig. I can go with Kahlua and Cream. A good margarita on the rocks. And then a few years ago I tried a mojito and loved it. Then… there was the time I tried a martini. Sure, the gin smelled really good to the nose, but drinking it tasted like turpentine. I just can’t do the “sippin'” thing. Maybe I haven’t been properly schooled.
I blame the mojito tho. I really like it, but any time I try to get one made for me it always comes out terrible. So I figure, if I want satisfaction, I’ll have to do it myself. Plus, I’ve kinda always enjoyed rum-based drinks for whatever reason. A simple Rum & Coke is a wonderful thing. So I finally got off my duff and figured it’s time to explore rum.
Trouble was, I did it on a whim and without any proper research I had no idea what on the shelf to buy. No, not going to bother with Bacardi. But thankfully I had my iPhone with me and stood in the aisle and researched a bit. A lot of positive feedback came for Flor de Caña, so I thought to try it out. I picked up a fifth of their 4 year old gold. I found that mixed very nicely. Right now, my mixing is rather limited: Coke, orange juice, apple juice, or just having it neat or on the rocks. It was alright. I found it mixed nicely with the Coke.
Since this is about exploration, next time to the store I picked up 3 bottles: Captain Morgan, just the original variety; Flor de Caña’s 7 year (originally I wanted to try their 12 year, but the store didn’t have it… they had 18 but I figure let’s start with 7 and work my way up… especially given how expensive the 18 year was); and finally Appleton Estate V/X.  I’ve been trying them all in the same way, e.g. have them all in the same amounts with Coke, or with OJ or whatever.
The Flor 7 is probably the most “sippin'” of them all, but I just find myself not liking it. Maybe it’s my n00b palate. As if this writing, I haven’t mixed it much, but we’ll see. I was amazingly surprised to see how well the Captain Morgan blended in apple juice…. it was like they were made for each other. Fantastic taste.
But what hit me the most so far has been the Appleton. First, the smell of it stood out… way out. The scent of molasses really hit me, in a positive way. It smelled just delicious. But when I tried it straight, it was… harsh. As I let the burn die down, what was left on my tongue tho I really appreciated. I can’t describe it adequately enough, but I found myself going back and trying it again… and again. It was most interesting. And mixing it has turned out to be pleasant, and certainly it stands out differently in flavor from all others I’ve tried so far. Next up, I am going to try more Appleton, probably their Reserve…work my way up.
Anyways, it’s fun to explore what life has to offer. Don’t know where this journey will take me, but I’m sure it’ll be a fun one.
Updated: From a friend of mine, and recording it here in case I forget….
I recently discovered the Dark and Stormy. A cocktail with Ginger Beer, lime juice, and dark rum. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_’N’_Stormy) Really tasty. I recommend you give it a spin…
PS: Don’t waste the really good (ie: expensive) stuff on cocktails. You can get by with Whalers or Meyers.
It sounds good. I bet Spec’s will have good ginger beer’s.
Meyers is another I wish to try.
And for the record, I had some apple juice with the Appleton V/X. It wasn’t bad, but it didn’t have that same “natural pairing” taste that the Capt. Morgan’s did.
How to get hit by a car when walking down the street
If you’ve ever wondered how to get hit by a car when walking down the street, here’s some helpful tips:
- Walk at night. Harder for cars to see you, tho you could see them due to their lights.
- Wear dark clothing. Harder for the cars to see you than if you wore light/white or even reflective clothing.
- Wear headphones with the music cranked up loud. Why should you listen for the sound of oncoming cars when Justin Bieber could be serenading you instead.
- Walk with the flow of traffic (in the USA, on the right-side of the road). If you walked facing traffic (left-side of the road), you’d be able to see oncoming cars and be able to move out of the way, and that’d be you know… like useful or some junk.
- Walk in the street, because cars are pesky things… if a couple of tons of steel come at you at a high rate of speed, physics be damned because you can just sue (if you survive).
- A sense that everyone else has to look out for you. Because taking responsibility for yourself is so uncool.
No, I didn’t hit anyone, but I had to run to the store late last night and nearly hit someone on a dark poorly-lit stretch of road because they were wearing almost black clothing, had large headphones (muff type, not earbuds) over their ears, walking on the right side of the road and on the road itself, and worst of all not facing traffic. A complete lack of awareness, and just a recipe for disaster.
It’s rare today to at least see people walking down the road facing traffic. When did we stop teaching this? And can we start again, please?
Dwindling duckies
About 3 weeks ago, two nests of muscovy duck eggs hatched. I forget the exact numbers, but each had around 20 ducklings.
An interesting thing happened.
The 2 “families” merged into one large group. I’m not exactly sure why or how it happened, but one day we’d see one mother with more and the other mother with less. Then later on we’d see that same mother with a lot less and the other mother with a lot more. I reckon since they all travelled in similar circles, they all just merged and blended… ducklings would see others similar to it moving on and would join the flow, others were looking the other direction and would stay with the others still eating. Just not sure what sort of “duck think” was going on here.
But more interesting was the two mother ducks seemed to be OK with it… as if they were agreeing to share the load. Every other time I’ve seen some mother duck and not-its-ducklings interact, they keep away: the foreign mother will chase away the strange babies, everyone keeps to their group. But here, they seemed to be all accepting. It got to a point where what you would see was a large group of 2 mothers and a whole mess of babies, rarely just one mother and babies.
Interesting. Just never seen such behavior before.
But what’s been harder to watch is the number of babies dwindling down. As of this writing, there are only 2 babies. It’s been an unusually cold winter so far, food has been scarce. Well… I guess that’s relative. For you see, we know there’s a predator bird flying around. I haven’t seen it so I can’t confirm what it is, but Kiddos have seen it. It’s a hawk or falcon or a kite or some such bird of prey. Kiddos have seen it dive-bombing the ducklings; they try to scare it off, and maybe they succeed for now but they can’t guard the ducklings all the time. Â I’d love to see this. I think large birds of prey are really cool. It’d be cool too to see where it’s nesting, because obviously it’s nearby.
I’m of mixed emotion on it. Of course, it’s just nature and the way things are: nature has some critters produce large broods because it’s expected for most of them to die off in one way or another. That includes being food for other critters higher on the food chain. Furthermore gosh… if we had all 40 ducklings survive, that would have massively increased the muscovy population in the neighborhood, which would put other pressure upon the population and just lead to another round-up. So it’s all good… but it still sucks because geez… ducklings are cute. 🙂
Homeschooling-related bills for the 82nd Texas Legislative Session.
There are (at least for now) 2 homeschooling-related bills in the 82ns Texas legislative session.
Quick look and the text appears to be the same in both the House and Senate bills.
No, bad bill. Oppose. I LOVE the phrasing… that leaving the failed public school system for a better education via homeschooling is considered dropping out.
HSLDA is opposing this, but I’m not 100% sure why. My guess is because it enumerates “home school” (in Texas, homeschooling is generally not enumerated, falling under jurisdiction of “private school” and it is best kept that way). I’m going to contact HSLDA for clarification.
Updated: I contacted HSDLA to ask for more details as to why they oppose.
Here’s their more detailed response to SB207 & HB196.
Here’s their more detailed response to HB132.
I agree with their reasoning. You can debate the merit of the intentions behind the bill, but from a purely legal perspective they are bad bills.
What Is Work Ethic?
One of those things that you just stumble across while clicking around the web… What Is Work Ethic?
Click through to the other website to see all the videos, but of them, I thought these two summed it up best:
The first is Will Smith
The second is Kobe Bryant
Stuff From Hsoi 